Myers Psychology for AP 2nd Edition
UNIT 4 SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Module
Module 16
Module 17
Module 18
Module 19
Topic
Essential Questions
Selective Attention
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Transduction
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Thresholds
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Sensory Adaptation
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Perceptual Set
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Context Effects
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Emotion and Motivation
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The Stimulus Input: Light Energy
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The Eye
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Visual Information Processing
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Color Vision
Visual Organization
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Visual Interpretation
Module 20
Module 21
The Stimulus Input: Sound Waves
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The Ear
Touch
Pain
Taste
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Smell
Body Position and Movement
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Sensory Interaction
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What are the implications of having the ability to attend
selectively to stimuli?
What are the implications of sensory information not
getting transformed and delivered to the brain properly?
Why are thresholds important to our ability to interact
with the world around us?
How does sensory adaptation help people live day to
day?
What are some benefits and drawbacks of perceptual
set?
How influential is context on our sensation and
perception?
What are the implications of emotions and motivation
influencing sensation and perception?
How is light important to vision?
What are the most important aspects of light that make
vision possible?
What are the most important aspects of the eye that
make vision possible?
How do feature detectors and parallel processing affect
our visual perception?
How do we see color?
Why do we organize visual information in particular
ways?
How does this type of organization help us understand
the world around us?
How does losing or regaining vision affect perception?
How does perceptual adaptation help us day to day?
How are sound waves important to hearing?
What are the most important aspects of sound waves
that make hearing possible?
What aspects of the ear make hearing possible?
Is touch a sensory system that is taken for granted?
What is the importance of pain in our lives?
How does our sense of taste affect other aspects of our
lives?
What is the importance of smell in daily life?
How can knowing about our body position and
movement be important?
Why is sensory interaction important?
Myers Psychology for AP 2nd Edition
UNIT 4 SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Module
Module 16
Learning Objectives
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Module 17
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Module 18
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Module 19
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Describe the sense of touch.
Discuss how we best understand and control pain.
Describe the senses of taste and smell.
Explain how we sense our body’s position and movement.
Describe how our senses interact.
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Module 21
Describe the characteristics of visible light, and explain the process by which the eye
transforms light energy into neural messages.
Describe how the eye and brain process visual information.
Discuss the theories that help us understand color vision.
Describe Gestalt psychologists’ understanding of perceptual organization, and explain how
figure-ground and grouping principles contribute to our perceptions.
Explain how we use binocular and monocular cues to perceive the world in three dimension
and perceive motion.
Explain how perceptual constancies help us organize our sensations into meaningful
perceptions.
Describe what research on restored vision, sensory restriction, and perceptual adaptation
reveals about the effects of experience on perception.
Describe the characteristics of air pressure waves, and explain the process by which the ear
transforms sound energy into neural impulses.
Discuss the theories that help us understand pitch perception.
Describe how we locate sounds
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Module 20
Contrast sensation and perception, and explain the difference between bottom-up and topdown processing.
Discuss how much information we can consciously attend to at once.
Identify the three steps that are basic to all our sensory systems.
Distinguish between absolute and difference thresholds, and discuss whether we can sense
and be affected by stimuli below the absolute threshold.
Explain the function of sensory adaptation.
Explain how our expectations, contexts, emotions, and motivation influence our perceptions.
List the claims of ESP, and discuss the conclusions of most research psychologists after
putting these claims to the test.
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